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A Crucible
4652790 1 l.jpg|String Crusader Godfather001.jpg|Puzo "There's no going back now; you've changed things forever" (The Dark Knight) The Puppetmaster The puppet has long served as a symbol for a pushover, a submissive personality capable of being animated by a force not his own. In 1969, Mario Puzo's novel, The Godfather, investigated the mafia on New York's East side, tracing the Corleone family from its height of power to its crumbling demise at the hands of Vito's (Marlon Brando) youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino). Coppola's film version of Puzo's text includes Vito's lament to his son, "I refused to be a fool dancing on a string held by all those big shots. I thought that when it was your time, you would be the one holding all the strings." The metaphor introduces The Dark Knight appropriately, for in the film The Joker stages a moral trial for the caped avenger, and his response to this test proves illuminating and insightul. Throughout the movie, the Joker, the puppetmaster, manuevers the strings of Gotham, Bruce Wayne's (Christian Bale) own moral code, and Harvey Dent's (Aaron Eckhart) Augustian view of man. 304294_10150270259750426_573588858_n.jpg|Pennywise|link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqupU2o8bYM chucky.jpg|Chucky|link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXbP3XgH3Wk 4907063_700b_v1.jpg|Ledger "Do you Wanna Play?" The realm of clowndom stems from the two foot, plastic Chucky doll to Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's novel, IT. Both creations hold a sense of comedy to their personas - grotesque comedy at best. Nolan's clown also packs his own tragic humor, but with it comes a sense of horror.The film opens to a series of scenes investigating the identity and reality of one they call The Joker. Like the Greek Chorus of old, the multiple voices sound out rumors, echo details, and label the Joker as an enigma. In the midst of these scenes, a lone man stands on a street corner, mask in hand, head titled at an angle, and waits for transportation. The conversation and banter continue until the bank manager yells, "You're dead! Do you not know who you are stealing from?" At this charge, our villain emerges from the Chorus - a pale, lone figure, who waltzes over to the injured administrator, mouths a couple of ironic words, and then infamously removes his mask to reveal his white, clown paint. This scene, while introducing us to the personification of the problem of evil (Fisher 2), also suggest that our villain is more complicated and complex than expected and is a man of multiple layers and madness. The first test arrives with the appearance of the clown. As Batman seeks his foe, Albert (Michael Caine) reminds Bruce that "you started it" when the Joker fails to play by the rules. Over the course of the film, the Joker pits the city against its most treasured asset, Batman. His tricks threaten to violate the realism Nolan worked so hard to embellish. In fact, the evil he represents is so deep seated, so innate, the audience staggers under its pure sadism. Freudian theory would insinuate the Joker's terror stems from the emotional abuse he suffered as a child, seen in the fragments of stories he tells his victims or targets regarding his scars. Not alone in his pock-marked past, Wayne, too represents "damaged goods" (Fisher 1). Even in his dark moments, his resolve prevents him from breaking his system of ethics; he damages himself instead of killing the Joker when he has the chance. Not satisfied with one test, the Joker begins to slowly animate Gotham's White Knight, Harvey Dent. Through applied pressure, the clown breaks down the golden one, pushing him into his own quest for justice through a fatalistic trial. According to Dent, the evil rises when the good people remain indifferent and inactive. His blaze of justice shows the Joker's long arm in that he can disarm even the most noble of men after causing them a bit of discomfort and suffering. "The world is cruel, " declares Dent, seemingly giving in to the malice and menace surrounding Gotham, providing another victory for the clown. Heat-Tempered Some of the most powerful narratives involve man's quest for justice against forces that are outside their own understanding or power. As Jack Black's character so wittinly coined in his kid flick House of Rock, the history of rock and roll is littered with the "stick it to the man" theme. Even famous playwrights know the tune. Arthur Miller in his infamous play about the Salem Witch Trials, The Crucible, places his hero, John Proctor, under the long strings of religious tradition, paralyzing fear, and damning uncertainty. Proctor, who refuses to bow to the ideology of the ministers of the Witch Trials, loses his life out of commitment to his honor and name. According to Miller, who found himself at the mercy of the Joseph McCarthy and company, believed that one day "we will all be John Proctor" (Miller, Interviews 3). The Joker, the molten heat that tempers the iron of Wayne's resolve, provides the crucible that molds The Dark Knight into the hero that "Gotham needs." Yet, when the film nears its conclusion, the one dangling from the building top is not the town's Black Bat but the clown-faced anarchist, suggesting an inversion of the test the film investigates. Who holds the strings now?